Combat Events
Combat Events are, as the name suggests, events that happen during combat. Depending on the situation, they may be beneficial and let you gain the upper hand before resuming combat, or they may be moderately detrimental if you do not meet a certain criteria. Some combat events are simple independent batches of flavour-text, while others may damage either/both your's and the enemy's ship, lead the combat into various hazards, send unique enemies/boarders at you, or signal the start of ship-specific events, such as a station preparing it's hodgepodge FTL drive, or a rock ship charging at you. Most/All combat events that provide beneficial or detrimental effects can be avoided or changed depending on various factors. Ship-Related Combat Events Events that affect only yours or the enemy's ship. Events that happen in all combat * "Captain, engineering reporting. There is something wrong with the reactor, probably its the fuel solution. I'm working on it, but right now we are running below optimum." You order to get this fixed as soon as possible and focus on managing your remaining power for now. ** Your ship's reactor power is reduced by 3''' bar. * "Captain, we exceeded the operational limits for our current system configuration. If we don't..." A loud bang interrupts your crewmen. You pushed your ship a little to far. An energy spike has overloaded a secondary power-coupler. Fire alarm! ** A random system ignites. Events that happen in all combat against manned enemy. * [http://ftl.wikia.com/wiki/Template:DuplicateEvent/doc '''2x]: The enemy has sustained heavy damage and the reactor of the small craft starts to malfunction. ** Your opponent ship's reactor power is reduced by 1''' bar. * [https://ftl.wikia.com/wiki/Template:DuplicateEvent/doc '''2x]: Scans indicate that the enemy's reactor has been breached and is only stabilized by the secondary containment fields. The craft rapidly loses power. ** Your opponent ship's reactor power is reduced by 3''' bar. * '''2x: The enemy's engines begin to stutter. Your opponent navigated too hard and burned out the stabilizers. ** Your opponent ship's engine system is reduced by 1''' bar. * Your fire caused some serious damage to the opponent's oxygen tanks. Life support is weakened. ** Your opponent ship's oxygen system is reduced by '''1 bar. * Your barrage rips the enemy craft right open. The craft has sustained substantial external damage; it is unlikely that their life support will be able to hold up much longer. ** Your opponent ship's oxygen bar is reduced by 3''' bar. * Parts of your salvo crush into the enemy's rear section, resulting in a small explosion that scatters hull panels in all direction. Then the ship goes dark. The opponent's reactor must be quite outdated or not well shielded; the craft suffers from an all out power failure. ** Your opponent ship's reactor power is reduced by '''2 bar. * "Captain, it appears we are leaking atmosphere." The battle strained the ship a little too much. Parts of the inner and outer sealing have been compromised and the explosive decompression breaches the ship hull. ** A random system breaches. * "Bring us in closer!" Your first mate is taking the order seriously and an unexpected enemy maneuver brings your ships on a head-on collision course. ** Continue... *** A loud screeching sounds through the entire ship as you vessels grate along each other at high speed. You lost some hull plating but the enemy looks much worse. One of their weapon arrays has almost broken off. **** Your ship takes 1 '''hull damage, a random system take '''1 '''damage and breaches, but your opponent ship's weapon system is limited by '''3 bar ** (Advanced Navigation AI) Abort! *** The navigation AI takes over and narrowly prevents you from crashing into the enemy craft. "Alright, get some distance between us now!" * Your shots seemed to have breached the enemy cargo hold. The vessel is losing supplies, scattering ammunition in its wake. ** Head for the ammo and quickly pick it up. *** The ammo was rigged with detonators and explodes as your ship gets near. You can't believe you fell for this. **** Your ship takes 2''' hull damage, a random system take '2 '''damage and breaches. *** ''You extract the recovery arms and grab the ammo in fly by. If your ship is equipped with compatible launchers, you could even fire it at your enemy now. **** Receive '''3-4 missiles. ** Abandon the ammo and focus at the battle at hand. * Your enemy has taken heavy damage and appears to be dropping fuel containers. Are they trying to lose mass? ** Head for the fuel and quickly pick it up. *** When you approach the fuel, your opponent turns hard and fires a potshot at the containers. Thy burst into blue flames that wash right over your ship. Your opponent must be pretty desperate to attempt something like this. **** Your ship takes 1''' hull damage. *** You extract the recovery arms and grab the fuel in fly-by. **** Receive '''2-3 fuel. ** Abandon the fuel and focus at the battle at hand. Events that happen in all combat against manned rebel enemy * The young Rebel Captain hails you. "Cease fire! Please, we can't go on like this. My crew and I where never really aboard for this whole Rebellion anyway. We have made up our minds: We surrender. You can take us prisoner, the Rebels might agree to an exchange. At last this way the Federation will get something out of insubordinate. I'm sorry to have betrayed us all. ** Pardon the Captain and allow him to join your crew. *** You dock with the Rebel cruft, but immediately realize that this offer was ruse. A concealed detachment of Rebel marines breaches your shield room and escapes deeper into the ship before you can call for a lockdown. The Rebel craft breaks away from you and re-opens fire. **** Your ship takes 1 hull damage, your shield system takes 1 damage and breaches, and you are attacked by 2''' human boarder. *** The turncoat cannot believe his luck. Better keep a close eye on them. You leave the Rebel ship to his remaining crew, they hope to flee the fleet's advance and return to their homes. **** Receive a human crewmember with a skill in piloting ** Take the Rebels as prisoners and loot their ship. *** You dock with the Rebel cruft, but immediately realize that this offer was ruse. A concealed detachment of Rebel marines breaches your shield room and escapes deeper into the ship before you can call for a lockdown. The Rebel craft breaks away from you and re-opens fire. **** Your ship takes 1 hull damage, your shield system takes 1 damage and breaches, and you are attacked by '''2 human boarder. *** You contact a local Rebel official via an encrypted proxy beacon and fix a rendezvous point in neutral territory to perform a prisoner exchange. If you can get there before the fleet then you might be able to negotiate the release of the prisoners under favorable conditions. **** A quest marker is added to your map ** Ignore their pleas and continue the engagement. *** No mercy for traitors! * In the mids of battle, an escape pod detaches from the enemy ship. The pod is badly damaged and it starts to emit a distress signal with Federation encoding. Faint life-signs are detected from within. ** Maybe a prisoner? Approach the pod to pick it up. *** You quickly pick up the pod in fly-by. It indeed contains a Federation officer who managed to escape the Rebels captivity in the heat of battle. You remind him that the fight isn't over yet and throw him a com-piece. "Understood. Reporting for duty, Captain." **** Receive 1''' random crewmember. *** You pick up the pod in fly-by and watch the cam feed as your crew quickly proceeds to open it. They find nothing but a whining Castovian Moon-Puppy, alongside several pounds of firebombs with their timer approaching zero. One of your crew fails to escape the blast. Damn those Rebels! **** You lose '''1 random crewmember and a random system ignites ***** (Clone Bay) You take a hopeful trip to the Clone Bay, and to your relief a clone is already prepared for the lost crewmember. ** Better don't take any risks. Ignore the pod. *** As the battle progresses, you scanners soon loose track of the pod as its autonomous energy source ceases to function. If anyone was in there, he is probably dead now. Events that happen in all combat against unmanned enemy/auto-ship * The enemy has sustained heavy damage and the reactor of the small craft starts to malfunction. ** Your opponent ship's reactor power is reduced by 1''' bar. * Scans indicate that the enemy's reactor has been breached and is only stabilized by the secondary containment fields. The craft rapidly loses power. ** Your opponent ship's reactor power is reduced by '''3 bar. * The enemy's engines begin to stutter. The AI craft navigated too hard and burned out the stabilizers. ** Your opponent ship's engine system is reduced by 1''' bar. * During fly-by, the automated craft suddenly launches a micro missile from a hidden compartment in its head section. The projectile pierces your shields and hull, but instead of detonating deploys a holo-generation unit inside your ship. A crude holographic representation of the auto crafts combat AI is spawned inside your ship and assaults your crew. ** You are attacked by '''2 AI avatar boarder and a random system breaches. * The ship computer reports: "Warning! Decompression event imminent on main deck." The battle strained the ship a little too much. Parts of the inner and outer sealing have been compromised and you are losing atmosphere through a breached hull section. ** A random system breaches. Events that happens in combat against specific ship's classes Rock Ramship All of a sudden, the Rock military vessel turns hard and heads for you on a direct collision course. "Sir, the hostile is attempting a ramming maneuver!" * Attempt to alter trajectory. ** 2x: You fire the engines but are unable to evade the mad Rock Captain. The ship's hull groans under the collision while the Rock ship remains completely unscathed. ** You fire the engines and are lucky enough to actually evade a direct collision. That was close. * (Improved Engines) Divert power to navigation thrusters! (Requires level 3''' Engine) ** You fire the engines and are lucky enough to actually evade a direct collision. That was close. ** You fire the engines but are unable to evade the mad Rock Captain. The ship's hull groans under the collision while the Rock ship remains completely unscathed. * '''(Advanced Engines) Full power to engines! (Requires level 5''' Engine) ** 2x: You fire the engines and are lucky enough to actually evade a direct collision. That was close. ** You fire the engines but are unable to evade the mad Rock Captain. The ship's hull groans under the collision while the Rock ship remains completely unscathed. * '''(Highly Advanced Engines) Evasive maneuvers! (Requires level 8''' Engine) ** The Rock ship is unable to match your speed and you easily outmaneuver it. You turn to attack again. * '''(Advanced Navigation AI) Complex evasive maneuvers! ** Your navigation AI tricks the Rock Captain by heading straight towards him as well. The computer fires the thrusters at the very last moment and your ships scratch each other at high speed; but your hull remains undamaged. Pirate Station Pirate Station self-destruct texts: * You receive a hail from a pirate, his voice sounding dark and hollow, "If I go down, I'll be taking you with me!" They start to overload an attached FTL core! * Your scanners register impressive energy spikes. The station seems to be equipped with an improvised FTL core which has been set to overload. Multiple escape pods and tiny shuttles leave the station. Maybe you should get out of here too? * "Your are quite a worthy opponent, but we still have some aces up our sleeve. Execute plan Delta!" Escape pods leave the station and its FTL signature starts fluctuating. It's going to blow up! * They message you, "We will never surrender. My crew have made up their minds long ago. It was fun while it lasted, now go to hell!" You detect massive energy output. The station seems to have some kind of FTL bomb installed. They are going to blow themselves up! *'(After enemy ship FTL is finished) '''Your crew reports, "Enemy FTL charge complete. Brace!" **'(Advanced Navigation AI)' Say a quick prayer. ***''Your prayers are answered by specialized AI routines: The advanced navigation computer takes over automatically. Within a split second, it fires the boosters and brings the ship to the optimal position to withstand the explosion. The shields barely hold, but your ship remains undamaged. Nothing of the automated vessel is salvageable. **Continue... ***''At first you think the whole station is jumping away, but it suddenly fades back into real-space and collapses in a bright pink explosion. Strong energy rays bombard your ship.'' ****Your ship takes 4''' hull damage, all system take '''1 damage, and a random system take 1 'more damage. ***''The station is torn apart by a violent explosion. Dead pirates and debris are blasted towards your ship and you can't manage to evade all the wreckage. Your ship suffers collision damage. ****Your ship takes '''4 hull damage, all system take 1''' damage, and a random system take '1 '''more damage. ***''The vidscreen automatically turns grey and shields your eyes from the bright explosion that completely annihilates the station. Your crew braces for impact as your ship is caught in the massive blast wave. These pirates must have been completely nuts. ****Your ship takes '''4 hull damage, all system take 1''' damage, and a random system take '1 '''more damage. ***''As the station's FTL system ignites parts of it jump into higher dimension while most of it remains in front of you and conventionally explodes. A major structural component is sent flying towards you. Too big to be stopped by your shields it tears a substantial hole in your hull. ****Your ship takes '''4 hull damage, all system take 1''' damage, and a random system take '1 '''more damage. Location-Related Combat Events Events that affect only the area of combat in which the fight takes place. Events that happen in all combat against manned enemy * ''The fighting maneuvers bring your ships close to a small asteroid field. Your opponent is unwilling to avoid it; instead the ship changes course and heads right towards the rocks. They are trying to lose you in the hazard zone. ** Go after them. *** You order evasive maneuvers and follow them into the asteroids. **** You are now in an '''asteroid field. ** Let them escape. *** The ship disappears into the field. Maybe they will get crushed by asteroids, but you have to assume they know the terrain and will live to harass other vessels. The weapons officer powers down the guns and you return to the beacon. **** Enemy ship successfully flee. ** (Improved Engines) Intercept them before they get to the asteroid field! (Requires level 7''' Engine) *** You are pushed deep into your seat as your pilot puts full power to the engines, easily getting ahead of the ship. No one escapes you! * During the fighting, your ships got dangerously close to the systems sun. Your opponent has taken considerable damage, but still sets a direct course for the star. Are they trying to escape or do they want to lure you into the danger zone? ** Go after them. *** You order your crew to brace for flare-impacts and follow the ship into the corona. **** ''You are now near a sun.'' ** Let them escape. *** The ship disappears behind the sun. You leave the epic solar-flare battle for another day. **** Enemy's ship successfully flee. ** '''(Improved Engines) Intercept them before they get to the star! (Requires level 7''' Engine) *** You are pushed deep into your seat as your pilot puts full power to the engines, easily getting ahead of the ship. No one escapes you! Events that happen in all combat against unmanned enemy/auto-ship * The fighting maneuvers bring your ships close to a small asteroid field. The automated craft activates its backup thrusters and speeds towards the rocks. It tries to lose you in the hazard zone, and will surely inform the Rebel fleet about your wherabouts if it gets away. ** Go after the ship. *** You order evasive maneuvers and follow the craft into the asteroids. **** You are now in an '''asteroid field. ** Let it escape. *** The ship maneuvers the hazardous terrain with ease and disappears into the field. It will certainly report back to the fleet soon. **** Enemy ship successfully flee and Rebel Fleet advanced by one jump. *** The automated craft escapes into the asteroid field, but its simple AI is unable to cope with the hazardous environment. Before you get a chance to intercept the craft, a large asteroid does your work for you and crushes into the craft's mid-section. You move in to salvage from the disabled ship. **** Receive a medium amount of scrap and resources. ** (Improved Engines) Intercept them before they get to the asteroid field! (Requires level 7''' Engine) *** You are pushed deep into your seat as your pilot puts full power to the engines, easily getting ahead of the ship. No one escapes you! Flavour Combat Events Events that, all-in-all, have no effect on combat, and are there merely to provide an immersive/interesting experience. Events that happen in all combat * Your shots pierce through the enemy craft, spilling trails of molten metal into open space. The enemy is taking heavy damage. * The constant maneuvering almost throws you out of your seat. Steady now! * "Enemy structural integrity is failing, Captain. We got this!" * "Shots continue to connect, Captain. Good effect on target." * Suddenly electricity arcs out of your console. "Isolate this coupler and reroute my command to another station." * As your ships exchange fire, your opponent starts to send one insulting hail after another. You decide to ignore this and focus on the combat at hand. * The dampeners run on full as you maneuver and exchange fire with your enemy. The heat aboard the ship becomes almost unbearable. * You stand in front of the captain's chair, focused on the windscreen, bellowing orders to your crew. You will not let this opponent get the better of you! * Just after you bellowed this last order, everything becomes still for a second. You see yourself from the outside, clutched to one of the silver railings that lines the ship bridge, shouting orders, gesticulating at the screen... Then you remember your parents, your childhood, your time at the academy, the line of cause and effect that brought you here; to another fight to the death. What has become of you? * ''Hold it steady and stay on target... Just like in the simulations. (2x' on manned enemy) * You will defeat this enemy, just like the ones you defeated before. For the Federation! Your father would be proud. * You are determined to not let this opponent get the upper hand. "Fire when ready!" * The ship's hull creaks under the stress of the combat maneuvers. You hope the ship can take it. * Your fire tears away a huge section of the enemy plating. Good hit! * Hull plating is scattered into space as your shots impact on the enemy craft. You'll pick those up later. Events that happen in all combat against manned enemy * During a fly-by, you catch a glimpse of the enemy captain through his ship's main view-port. For a split second you come face to face with your enemy. * All of the sudden the opponent turns and boosts into your direction; you barely manage to avoid a collision. This definitely caught you off guard. The maneuver was either very well planned or completely mad. * While your weapons trace the enemy, the ship briefly passes in front of the systems sun. For a split-second, it appears as a majestically illuminated shadow in front of the giant star. A brief image of beauty during the cruel carnage of ship-to-ship combat. * "Where did he go?" "I can't track him, there is some interference." "There, eighty degrees to the relative right." "OK, re-engaging." Your crew desperately tries to keep on target. * Your opponent hails: "Give up, you can't win this!" * Your opponent hails: "We will crush you!" * Your opponent hails: "We will not be defeated! Brace yourself!" * Your opponent hails: "Good hit, Captain. Should I have finally met my equal?" * Your opponent hails, but the transmission is completely garbled. * Your opponent hails, but the transmission is interrupted by the hits the enemy sustains. You decide to pay this no mind and focus on keeping a lock on the enemy. * You remember this maneuver from the academy! Did your opponent at some point receive training from the Federation? * You never saw the maneuvers your opponent is flying, but they are not without style. The enemy Captain must have been trained in some remote alien flight school. * The enemy craft seemed to have had some additional passengers aboard. Escape pods are jettisoned from the craft and tumble far away into open space. The enemy starts to abandon ship. * The combat noticeably strains the ship. Sparks fly from sealing panels and acrid smoke covers the floor. You smell burnt plastic and your own sweat. * For a moment you are afraid of losing it. What if we don't make it? What if we can't escape or defeat the next enemy? You don't want to die! Then it passes... The crew does not seem to have noticed, or at least isn't showing it. You take a deep breath and re-collect yourself, then you ask for a situation report and try to focus on the battle. * Your opponent's hull is covered with glowing impact craters of various sizes. They won't be able to take this kind of punishment much longer. * You are hailed: "Hey, Captain, should we call it a draw? Ha, just kidding! Bring it on!" Events that happen in all combat against unmanned enemy/auto-ship * All of the sudden, the small auto ship turns and boosts into your direction; you barely manage to avoid a collision. This definitely caught you off guard. * While your weapons trace the enemy, the ship briefly passes in front of the system's sun. For a split-second, it appears as a majestically illuminated shadow in front of the giant star, a brief image of beauty during the cruel carnage of ship-to-ship combat. * The automated craft starts to continuously message you: "DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE" * The AI craft hails you: "This is an automated message. Resisting our takeover is pointless. Prepare to die." You've heard it all before. * The AI craft sends its mantra again: "This is an automated message. Resisting our takeover is pointless. Prepare to die." * The AI craft sends a threatening message. You order to block its channels and focus on the battle. * The AI craft hails you: "This is an automated message. You have resisted an executive unit of the Rebellion. This violation has been filed and will have consequences regardless of the outcome of this engagement." * The combat noticeably strains the ship. Sparks fly from wall panels and acrid smoke covers the floor. You smell burned plastic and you own sweat. * For a moment you are afraid of loosing it. What if we don't make it? What if we can't escape or defeat the next enemy? You don't want to die! Then it passes... The crew does not seem to have noticed, or at last isn't showing it. You take a deep breath and recollect yourself, then you ask for a situation report and try to focus on the battle. * Your opponent's hull is covered with glowing impact crater of various sizes. It won't be able to take this punishment for much longer.